Abstract
Background: Caring for oneself through mindfulness and compassion to improve or enhance health behaviors, and specifically eating behaviors has come to the forefront of scientific inquiry. The experiences and challenges for people in decision making around food within the context of self-kindness for body and mind care have not been previously explored.Aims: This study explored the experiences of eating behaviors in a community sample and examined the understanding of self-kindness and its relationship to eating behaviors and wellbeing of body and mind.Methods: A phenomenological theoretical position was taken; data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews. The sample was twenty-five members of the wider community in the West Midlands in England. The data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) procedural steps for thematic analysis.Results: Two overarching themes were inductively formulated: ‘Thinking about eating’ and ‘Caring for body and mind’. Five themes were constructed: (a) Treat food is exceptional eating, (b) The proof of the pudding is in the planning, (c) Dieting is a dirty word, which are subsumed under Thinking about eating, and (d) Self-kindness is a disavowed abstract noun, and (e) Self-kindness: A rose by any other name; under Caring for body and mind. Participants described a number of ways of treating themselves both with food and with other activities and pleasure in eating was discussed in terms of social aspects of eating rather than food. Two clear contradictions within narratives around eating and health behaviors were shown. Participants largely eschewed the concept of dieting, but described engaging in highly regulated and restrained eating. There was a lack of connection with the notion of self-kindness; although positive eating and exercise health behaviors were undertaken, they were described as necessary self-regulation, not construed as acts of self-kindness.Conclusion: The results suggests a lack of ease in the interpretation of being kind to oneself as a means of improving mental wellbeing, and an inability to relate self-kindness to physical health behaviors. The association of self-kindness with self-indulgence, and the described disconnect between hunger, satiety and pleasure in eating has implications for interpretation of mindful eating scales, practices and interventions.
Highlights
Self-compassion has become pertinent in contemporary health sciences, and even more so in mediating and predicting physiological health
This research identified two overarching themes ‘Thinking about eating’ and ‘Caring for body and mind’ and five main themes: (a) Treat food is exceptional eating, (b) The proof of the pudding is in the planning, (c) Dieting is a dirty word, (d) Self-kindness is a disavowed abstract noun, and (e) Self-kindness: A rose by any other name, which will be explored with relevant literature
Similar connotations could be made when we reflect on mindfulness and mindful eating programs when we explore the element of non-judgment
Summary
Self-compassion has become pertinent in contemporary health sciences, and even more so in mediating and predicting physiological health. From randomized controlled trials utilizing self-compassion for smoking cessation (Kelly et al, 2010) and weight regulation (Mantzios and Wilson, 2015a) to predicting health-promoting behaviors and better physical health (Hall et al, 2013; Sirois, 2015; Sirois et al, 2015; Brown et al, 2016; Dunne et al, 2016), self-compassion has become a trait at the forefront of up-to-date inquiries around health and health behavioral change. Self-compassion has been defined as a mindful awareness of treating oneself with kindness and understanding when faced with adversity, and through realizing that such experiences are common amongst all humans (Neff, 2003b). Neff (2003a,b) described how self-compassion consists of three interrelated components: self-kindness (vs self-judgment), common humanity (vs isolation), and mindfulness (vs overidentification). Caring for oneself through mindfulness and compassion to improve or enhance health behaviors, and eating behaviors has come to the forefront of scientific inquiry. The experiences and challenges for people in decision making around food within the context of self-kindness for body and mind care have not been previously explored
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